Protective guard for the tools of cutting and punching machines, &amp;c.



I. L. MILLER.

PROTECTIVE GUARD FOR THE TOOLS 0F CUTTING AND PUNCHING MACHINES, 6w. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 28. 1920.

1,387,553. Patented g- 16, 1921.

INVENTQR Y Isidore. LQ M' BY QQ ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ISIDORE LEO MILLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.. ASSIGNOB OF ONE-FOURTH TO HERMAN MILLER, OITIEi-IEQUZR'IH T0 NORMAN MILLER, AND ONE-FOURTH TO NATHAN MILLER, ALL or NEW Yonx, N. Y.

' PROTECTIVE GUARD FOR THE TOOLS OF CUTTIN G AND PUNCHING MACHINES, &c.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug, 16, 1921 Application filed February 28, 1920. Serial No. 381,990.

To all whom it may coiiccrn:

Be it known that I, Ismonn LEO MILLER, a citizen of'the United States and a resident of New York. in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Protective Guards for the Tools of Cutting and Punching Machines, &c., of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a protective guard for the tool of cutting and punching machines, etc., and the main object of the invention is the provision of a safety device for such machines which will at all times during operation surround and mask the path of travel of the tool and thus prevent injury to an operator.

In carrying my invention into efl'ect I employ a protective guard that surrounds the tool throughout its path of travel and which has a suitable relative movement with respect to said tool and its'holder when the machine is in operation. Preferably the guard is an extensible device, the preferred construction being one in which the guard comprises a series of telescopic sections connected at the upper end'to the tool holder and resting at the lower end on the upper plate of the machine with which the tool cooperates. The construction is such that as the tool holder rises the guard will be automatically extended by gravity, and as said holder descends said guard will be automatically shortened, the lower end thereof preferably remaining at all times in contact with the aforesaid plate. Ordinarily all the telescopic sections will have positive means for limiting their relative movement, and the device as a whole will ordinarily be attached to the tool holder, and said device may be made up of two, three or more sec tions, as may be required for each type of machine; but'the device may be made of but two sections, one attached to the tool holder and movable therewith and adapted to telescope with a fixed section on the plate of the machine. In some cases it may be desirable to employ a device having a lower portion secured to said plate and an upper portion suspended from the tool holder and made up of two or more telescoping sections,

the lower section adapted'to telescope with struction, having applied to the punch thereof my improved protective guard, which in this case 18 shown as made up of a plurality of sections and suspended as a whole from the punch-holder,

2 is an enlarged detail illustrating in vertical section and elevation the contracted position of the guard,

1 Fig. 3 is a like view showing the extended position of the same,

Fig. 4 is a detail of a modified form of my device, illustrating in vertical section and elevation its contracted position, the lower section of the guard herein bein shown as secured to the stripper'plate o the machine, while the remainder of the device, made up of two telescoping sections, 1s attached to the punch-holder and telescopes with the section secured to the plate an Fig. 5 is a detail showing in vertical section and elevation the device of Fig. 4 applied to a press having gang or multiple Similar characters designate like parts in all the figures of the drawing.

ting or punching metal, paper, cardboard, leather, celluloid or other sheet material, and is here shown in connection with a punch-press of well-known construction. In the embodiment of my invention illustrated in F 1gs. 1, 2 and 3, 2 designates the upper portlon of the frame of a press having ]011!- naled therein the shaft 3, said shaft carrymg the fly-wheel 4 and pitman 5, to the latter of which is attached the reciprocatmg slide 6, ided in gibs 7 bolted at 8 to the frame 0 the press. A unch-holder or stem 9 is attached to the sli e 6 in any suitable manner, and is ada ted to receive and clamp the punch 10. T e rigid bed of the press is designated by 11, and as here shown has secured thereto the bolster 12, which is grooved to carry the die 13 ada ted for 00- f o eration with the punch 10. have also s own herein at 14 a. stripper of well-known construction for permitting the punch to. be drawn out of the sheet material after a blank (not shown) has been punched, all of the arts hereinbefore described being of a usua well-known type of construction.

The device of the present invention is intended to surround and inclose the reciprocating tool at all points in its stroke and thus fully protect an operator, and it is preferably co-axial with said tool and so combined with the adjacent parts as to have a relative movement in the direction of travel of the tool. A preferred construction is one in which the lower end of the guard is substantially immovable with respect to the stripper-plate 14 through which the tool passes, but has at'its upper end a movement relative to the lower end of said guard. This relative movement may be obtained in any suitable type of extensible guard surrounding the tool, but the preferred construction is one in which the device is tubular, co-axial with the tool and adapted to telescope vertically. The telescopic guard shown is designated generally by g, and in the construction illustrated in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 cdinprises three .-tubular sections associated in such a manner as to be capable of extension substantially to their maximum length when the tool is at the top of its stroke, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, and of being drawn in so that the guard has'its minimum length when said toolis at the bottom of its'stroke, this position being shown in Fig. 2. The three sections of the guard illustrated in said figures are designated respectively by 15, 15 and 15*. These sections may be combined in any suitable manner to prevent their separation when extended, while permitting them to telescope one with another. The guardas a whole may be supported in any proper manner, but in this case is fastened to the reciprocating slide-6 so that the ma'or-portion of theguard will move up and down with the slide and tool. Inthe construction illustrated the upper section the stripper 14 through which the tool 15 of the guard is connected directly tov the tool-holder or stem 9. This connection may be made in any desired manner. Thus when the sections 15, 15 and 15" are properly connected for movement relative to one another without separating, it will be evident that the tool-guard as a whole will be suspended as a unit from the tool-holder. Its move ments are intended to be controlled conjointly by the tool-holder and by any suitable element of the machine adjacent to the work. This element in the present case is I :ses before entering the die. When in operation the tool-guard will rest at its 'lcwer'end, that is, the under side of the lowermost section 15 will res upon the plate 14, and the upper sections 15 and 15" will move 11p and down more or less, under the influence of the movement of the toolholder.

, For the purpose of maintaining the sections of the telescopic guard in proper working relation and permitting the proper relative movement thereof without the use of additional devices for maintaining them in assembled condition, the various sections 15, 15 and 15", here shown as cylindrical, are preferably shouldered to prevent separation one from another. Thus the section 15 has an internal shoulder or rim 16 at its lower end adapted to co-act with the external shoulder 17 at the upper end of the section 15 to limit relative movement of these sections; while the internal shoulder 18 at the bottom of the section 15 coacts with the external shoulder 19 of the section 15 to limit relative movement of these sections. The various sections being loosely nested for free movement and positively stopped by said shoulders the device is entirely responsive to the movements of the toolholder and masks the tool throughout its length at all speeds of operation of the machine.

In Fig. 4 I have shown the contracted position of a modified form of the device, this embodiment of my invention being desig' nated generally by g and shown as of three sections, the upper two of which are nested and operate as in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, but in which the lower section, designated by 15, is secured to the stripper 14. The construction is such that the sections surround the 100 tool at all points of its stroke, as in the device of Figs. 1, 2 and 3. It will be obvious that a guard of this type may have but one section secured to the tool-holder and movv ing with the tool, this moving section-being 1'05 adapted to telescope with the fixed section 'on the plate throughout the path of movement of the tool; or the reciprocating .portion of the guard may be made up of three, four or more sections, as the particular machine and tool may require.

In'Fig. 5 there is shown a tool-holder or stem 19 carrying multiple dies g of the same type as that shown in Fig. 4. The stripper 20 and die 21 thereof instead of being adapted for use with a single cutting tool are intended for -co5peration with a an of tools, all of like form or of dissimie ar orms. Y

The manner of operation of the device will, it is believed, be obyious from the foregoing description. When in place with the machine in operation the coaxial sections of the telescopic guard will be projected b" gravity and drawn in by the descent of the in the normal operation of the device only when the upper section 15 connected thereto is drawn up positively by the tool-holder. When a guard having but one moving sec tion and one fixed section is used these sections will be adapted to telescope throughout the path of movement of the tool and will mask it at all times during operation of the machine.

As shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the whole of the guard is detachable as a unit from the remainder of the mechanism of the machine; and in Figs. 4 and 5 the reciprocating portion is removable in the same manner. Also the section fixed to the plate is readily detachable. Obviously such a'guard may be secured in operative relation with the other parts of the machine in various ways other than that shown in the drawings herein, as may be desired. Moreover, though shown herein as made up of three sections, the guard may be made up of any desired number ofsections required to mask the moving tool throughout its stroke.

What I claim is:

1. Ina machine of the class described, the combination with a tool-holder and tool and with a plate adapted for the passage of the tool therethrough, of a sheath inclosing said tool from the tool-holder to the plate.

2. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a tool-holder and tool and with a plate adapted for the passage of the tool therethrough, of a sheath attached to said tool-holder and inclosing said tool from the tool-holder to the plate.

3. In a machine of the class described, the v combination with a tool-holder and tool and with a plate adapted for the passage of the tool therethrou h, of a tubu ar sheath inclosing said too from the tool-holder to the plate.

4. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a tool-holder and tool and with a plate adapted for the passage of the tool therethrough, of a sheath of telescopic sections attached to the tool-holder and inclosing said tool from the tool-holder to the plate, and means for limiting the relative longitudinal movement of said sections.

5. In a machine of the class described, the

combination with a tool-holder and tool and with a plate adapted for the passage of the tool therethrough, of a telescopic guard made up of cylindrical sectionsand attached at its upper end to the'tool-holder and having its lower section resting upon said plate,

and cooperative collars on said sections for limiting their relative longitudinal movement. I

7. In a machine of the class described, the combination with a tool-holder and tool and with a plate adapted for the passage of the tool 'therethrough, of a tool guard attached to said tool-holderand inclosing said tool and adapted to'be contracted u on the descent of the tool-holder and to extended by Sgravity on its ascent.

igned at New York, in the county of New York, and State of New York, this 13th day of Februar A. D. 1920.

I IDORE LEO MILLER. Witnesses:

L. Garmxaaae, F. B. Heme. 

